Secrets and Fake Relationships
by Midnight Conversations
Summary: When Felicity stumbles across an old video, she realizes that her friend Barry Allen was none other than Sebastian Smythe. With an upcoming family wedding, Felicity is desperate to find a suitable date so that her family may finally leave her alone. Who's a better date than rich, handsome, and musically talented Sebastian Smythe?
1. The Realization

**A/N This takes place early season 3 of Arrow, enjoy!**

Felicity Smoak couldn't believe her eyes. It had started out innocently enough. She was home, and all she had been doing was looking through Youtube, watching videos on show choirs. It all started when her younger cousin from Florida told her that she was going to attend a National show choir competition. After that conversation, Felicity decided to look up a few of her performances, as well as her competitions. She soon got addicted; these kids were good, really good. Pretty soon, she watched all of the recent videos, so she began looking through older ones.

It wasn't long before she stumbled across a video entitled, "Dalton Academy Warblers at Regionals". She immediately clicked on the video once she noticed how many views and likes it had, it was more then any other video she watched, including some group called "New Directions", who she thought were pretty good. The first thing she noticed was that the group was made up of all boys, who wore matching blazers. _Cute prep school boys, no wonder this video has so many views,_ she thought. The song "Stand" came on, and she realized that these guys were seriously talented. However, it seemed as if there was one main voice overlapping all of the others.

And then the camera zoomed in on one specific person, the one person who was obviously leading the rest of the vocals. "It can't be." She said to herself incredulously.

And then he stepped out of the crowd, and walked up towards the front of the stage. From that angle, it was impossible to deny, the leader of this talented group of prep boys was none other then Barry Allen.

Even though he looked like Barry, the lead singer carried himself differently. He looked cocky, over confident, and dare she say promiscuous.

He was a great dancer, which was obvious. The Barry she knew was clumsy and kind of awkward. He didn't posses the "swagger" that this kid had. His voice was absolutely mesmerizing. The type that makes most girls swoon. There was no way that this was Barry. Not surprisingly, halfway through the song, all of the audience is already standing, and clapping along to the song.

And then came the time when Barry asked everyone to donate some money to a charity that his group was raising money for. Only Barry would be so selfless to stop in the middle of his performance to ask people that.

And just when she thinks that Barry can't surprise her more, the song "Glad You Came" comes on. It starts with just him singing. But then he begins to dance, and then she understands why a regional high school show choir competition has so many views. When he nods, she can practically see the girls in the audience swoon.

She always thought Barry was cute, in a nerdy slightly awkward kind of way. She wouldn't deny that when they first met, she had a crush on him, it was pretty obvious. But with everything that happened, with the coma, superpowers, and Oliver, she was glad to just have him as a friend. But looking at this video, she couldn't remember why she ever used the word "cute" to describe Barry Allen. Oh no, he was down right sexy. From the voice, to the dancing, to that smirk, everything about him screamed "sexy man-whore". That was when she remembered a conversation they had a few months previously.

 _ **Flashback**_

 _It was a pretty average night in Central City, only today, Team Flash decided to visit the Arrow Cave._

" _We should go out to a bar tonight!" Cisco exclaimed, bored out of his mind._

" _Cisco, you do realize we are currently right underneath a bar, right?" Roy inquired._

" _Yes, I realize this. But you guys only ever frequent Verdant, you guys don't really go to any other bar." Cisco said._

" _The drinks here are free." Diggle pointed out._

" _True, but I don't want to stay here! We already went to Verdant last time we were in town! Let's do something new for a change!"_

" _He has a point, when was the last time we went somewhere else?" Felicity admitted._

" _Fine, I concede. Where do you guys want to go?" Oliver asked, giving in._

" _I heard about this great place called Azure's, apparently it's one of the best bars in Starling." Cisco suggested._

 _Felicity laughed before replying, "Oh we can't go there."_

" _Why not?" Roy asked._

" _Oliver's banned for life. Apparently he caused quite a bit of trouble there during his pre-island days." Felicity answered._

" _What?! How does one get banned for life from a bar? Don't they have a bunch of drunk idiots every night?" Caitlyn asked, shocked that someone could actually get banned from a bar for life._

 _Barry just chuckled before saying, "You'd actually be surprised at how easy it is to get banned from a bar, especially if you sleep with all of the right, or wrong people."_

" _What, get kicked out of a lot of bars Barry?" Felicity teased._

" _Just 4. No wait; 5. Or was it 6?" Barry replied, looking like he was actually trying to remember how many bars banned him._

" _Oh really? What did you do, offer to help the busboys clean up because you felt bad for them?" Cisco joked, obviously not believing Barry._

" _I will have you know, I was quite the party boy back in high school and college." Barry admitted._

" _Sure, whatever you say Barry." Oliver said, before directing the subject back to finding a suitable bar._

 _ **End of Flashback**_

Now that Felicity thought about it, throughout that entire conversation, Barry was wearing a smirk exactly like the one he was wearing in the video, a smirk that practically screamed smug arrogance. What if he wasn't lying that day? Now that she has seen this video, she wasn't sure anymore.

Looking at the description, she saw that someone named "Nick" posted it. That was when she noticed the date. She knew that Barry was the same age as her, so she realized that this video was posted sometime during their Junior year of high school, so it matches up perfectly.

The description itself read, "Dalton Academy Warbler's amazing performance at Regionals, led by Captain Sebastian Smythe."

Now that confused Felicity. It was obvious that Barry was the Captain, so who the heck was Sebastian Smythe?

So she decided to look him up. What she found however, shocked Felicity more then she thought possible. It seemed like Sebastian Smythe, and Barry Allen were in fact the same person. Though why he changed his name was still a mystery to her. A lot of what she found was in regards to his days at Dalton Academy. She viewed a few more of his performances, before she decided to dig deeper.

She found his Valedictorian speech at Dalton Academy. That didn't surprise her; he was a genius after all. What did surprise her however, was a video of his Valedictorian speech at Julliard College of Music. Barry once told her that he attended Columbia, so why did she just find a video of him at Julliard. The thing that shocked her even more was that the video was posted only 2 years after Barry supposedly graduated high school. The article attached to the video was entitled, "Musical Genius Breaks a Record." The article itself was quite lengthy, but the over all idea of it was that "Sebastian Smythe" broke a record for the fastest student to ever receive a bachelors degree from Julliard, getting one in just over 2 years.

She decided to look even more, and soon she found an interesting article from Fortune.

 _ **Sebastian Smythe Announced as the Heir of the Smythe Fortune**_

 _Sebastian Smythe, biological nephew and adopted son of Richard and Hannah Smythe has just been announced as the sole heir and recipient of the Smythe family fortune. Smythe INC. has been a popular and important business for many years now. As one of the top Fortune 500 companies, it brings in Billions of dollars to the Smythe family. Richard Smythe, who is now currently CEO, founded the company. His wife runs her own Design firm, Smythe Designs. Sebastian is known to work alongside Hannah, as a part-time junior designer_

 _As the only living family member of the Smythe family, Richard and Hannah announced during a recent press conference that Sebastian was set to take over the family wealth. When asked on whether or not this means that Sebastian will be the future CEO, Richard Smythe answered that it wasn't yet decided. There have been many debates on whether or not this young music prodigy is fit to take over the company, but the final decision belongs to Sebastian Smythe himself._

Once Felicity finished reading the article, she was convinced that she was somehow cursed with a very specific type, which was apparently "Good-looking Billionaires who could use the salmon ladder, and had a case of Hero Complex". Sighing, Felicity gave up on searching everything about Barry/Sebastian, realizing she has been doing so for the past few hours. Instead, she decided to innocently check her email.

Of course, she was cursed, because as soon as she opened her email, she noticed one from her cousin, reminding her of the up coming wedding.

Her cousin Alice was supposed to be marrying her long-time boyfriend Daniel. It was supposed to be a grand event, with the whole family invited. There was one problem though; Felicity despised most of her family. They always made it their job to ask why Felicity was still single, and try to set her up on dates with their Rabbi's son. It was exhausting. She knew they meant well, but they were always criticizing everything about her. When she would talk, they would scoff and point out that her rambling was probably the reason why she was still single. Or sometimes it was the way she looked and dressed.

The point was, her family always antagonized her, and she did not enjoy it at all. Now that her cousin, a girl that was 2 years younger than her, was getting married, she was sure she would hear quite a lot about the fact that was still single. She was quite desperate to get out of all of those awkward conversations, but there was no way she could miss the wedding, her family would never forgive her. Then she had the "brilliant" idea of inviting a fake boyfriend.

When she first heard about the wedding, she was thinking about inviting Oliver or Ray as her date, but she quickly disregarded that idea. One was her previous boss, the other was her current boss, if she took either one and introduced him as her date, everyone would assume she was sleeping her way to the top, which was not true at all. But she knew that was what her family would automatically assume. She wouldn't be able to pry Diggle away from his family, not that she would want to, he was more of a brother to her then anything. And Roy was much to young to pose as her fake boyfriend.

As she glared at the email that held the RSVP, she noticed the window open right next to it. It was open to a video of Barry singing "Live While We're Young". Smiling, Felicity finally found a solution to her problem.

Getting her phone, she frantically punched in the numbers, and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello?" Barry asked from the other side.

"Hey Barry, or should I say Sebastian."

Barry gasped, then asked awkwardly, "What are you talking about Felicity?"

"So you're denying that you, Barry Allen, are also Sebastian Smythe?" Felicity questioned.

Sighing, Barry answered, "How did you find out?"

"Youtube. But first, I need a favor. How fast can you get to Starling City?" She asked.

She could practically hear the smirk across the phone as Barry replied, "In a flash."


	2. The Past

It took exactly 28 seconds for Barry to show up at Felicity's door, which she opened as soon as she hung up.

"Hey Felicity." Barry greeted as he stepped inside her home, shutting the door behind him.

"Hey Barry. Or do you prefer Sebastian?" Felicity questioned.

"Yeah, about that. How exactly did you find out about me? And exactly how much do you know?" He asked.

With a sigh, Felicity recounted the story of how she stumbled upon a video of his on YouTube, which naturally led to her trying to figure out as much as she can about him. As she told him about the articles she uncovered, she noticed him slightly wince.

"So that's everything I know about you. Feel free to fill in the blanks." She teased.

With a smile, he took a seat on her couch, and started to say, "My mother maiden name was Nora Smythe. After she died, I refused to change my name, since I knew my father was innocence. I was not ashamed to admit I was an Allen. But then the bullying got really bad. I was always bullied, but the year before high school, it took a turn for the worse. Iris was extremely worried about me, so she confessed to her father. All it took was that one conversation for Joe to pick up the phone, and call my mother's brother, Uncle Richard."

 _Flashback_

 _14-years-old_

 _Barry was pacing the halls in the West home, waiting for Joe to get off the phone with his Uncle Richard. When Joe finally did stop talking, he handed the phone to the 14-year-old Barry._

" _Uncle Rich?" Barry answered._

" _Hey Bear. Why didn't you tell me about the bullying?" His Uncle replied, getting straight to the point. Barry was Uncle Richards only living relative, and the same vise-versa, so he was quite protective of his nephew._

" _I didn't want you guys to worry." Barry admitted sheepishly._

" _Well, I for one refuse to let it continue." Richard stated._

" _What do you mean?" Barry questioned._

" _I want you to move in with me."_

" _Move? To Paris?" Barry blurted._

" _Yes, to Paris. As you know, your Aunt Hannah and I don't have any children of our own, and we would hate to see anything happen to you. Please son, move in with us. I know you're fluent in French, so don't you even try to use that excuse."_

 _Both Nora and Richard were born and raised in Paris, so when Barry was born, Nora had insisted on teaching Barry French._

" _I don't want to leave Central. My dad is here!" Barry exclaimed._

" _I think your Dad would better appreciate the fact that you were safe, more then the fact that you can visit often. And it goes without saying, but I'm sure the West's feel the same way."_

 _It was a hard decision, he didn't want to leave his Dad, and he certainly didn't want to leave Joe and Iris. But then he remembered Iris's horrified face as she saw the bruises that littered Barry's body._

 _With a sigh, he replied, "How soon should I pack?"_

" _Immediately."_

 _15-years-old_

 _It's been a year since he moved to Paris. As soon as the adoption papers went through, Barry changed his name to Sebastian Smythe. In Paris, he was no longer the nerdy kid who got bullied; instead he was Sebastian Smythe, heir to billions of dollars, musical prodigy, and all around cocky genius._

 _Along with the name, he changed the way that he acted. Being forced to go to an absurd amount of galas and balls, Barry soon developed an over confident and snarky attitude. He was widely known for his charm and etiquette, and more often then not used it to his advantage. He was the perfect embodiment of a wealthy, European upperclassman._

 _During his time in Paris, he attended a private music school for the gifted. There, he was taught to play multiple instruments, along with musical composition. It wasn't long for his teachers to realize that not only was he a gifted pianist and composer, but also a gifted vocalist. His talents, along with his charm, obvious wealth, and good looks, made him the most popular boy in school._

 _Soon after he moved, Barry also discovered that he was quite the artist. Back when he was younger in Central, he would always draw, and while he knew that he was talented, it came as a surprise to everyone when they finally began to notice his eye for fashion. This made his Aunt Hannah immediately sign him up as her personal intern at her design studio._

 _All of this factored into the man that Sebastian Smythe soon became. He was well known and liked among his social class in France, and he was all too happy with it. He traveled across Europe, and made multiple friends. It wasn't long though, before he picked up some nasty habits._

 _The first bad habit came when a friend of his suggested he take his coffee with a shot of Courvoisier. It came to the point where he couldn't drink coffee without it._

 _Another bad habit was the need to lie. His whole life in Paris was a lie after all. No one in the country, other then his relatives, knew of Barry Allen, and he intended to keep it that way._

 _The next horrible habit was his womanizing ways. The fact that at this point Barry was somewhat of an alcoholic made it easier for him to accept the fact. There wasn't a beautiful girl that he met that he didn't end up getting, only to end up breaking her heart._

 _When womanizing became to boring for him, he moved on to a harder challenge. He would pretend to be gay, just to see if he can actually get a guy. Of course, he would admit to being straight before anything went to far, but he still pursued the male gender just for fun._

 _All of these bad habits factored into Barry worst one yet, his lack of conscience. Years of being mistreated and bullied hardened Barry beyond repair, so when he finally got a chance to start over, he was dead set on doing it right. This caused him to develop a major Alpha Male complex. He decided to just let go, and have fun, damn the consequences. There was no way in hell that Sebastian Smythe would ever go back to being weak old Barry Allen._

 _16-years-old_

 _After two years of living it up in Paris, his Aunt and Uncle decided to move to Ohio. Barry was not happy with this decision at all._

 _He had finally escaped the USA, and all memories of his family's tragedies, yet here he was, back in the country filled of bullies._

 _He was quickly admitted into an all-male private school named Dalton Academy. His uncle enrolled him here on purpose, obviously not blind to his womanizing ways. Little did he know, Barry had just as much fun seducing woman as he did seducing men. It was all a game to him after all._

 _End of Flashback_

Barry then continued to tell Felicity about his time in Dalton, how he was Head Warbler, and all about New Directions.

"When I realized that I was a factor in Karofski's attempted suicide, I knew that I had to change. I kept the name, and I kept the confidence, but I changed the attitude. I knew how it was to be bullied, I experienced it first hand, but somehow, I didn't realize that what I was doing was considered bullying as well. So I apologized to everyone, especially Dave and Blaine. It's all fun and games, until it's not."

Felicity looked completely interested, albeit surprised at the story. "So, what happened after you graduated Dalton?"

"Well, Sebastian Smythe was the name the musical community knew, so I kept the name as I attended Julliard. I had accumulated a lot of musical college credit back in Paris, so I was able to graduate with a Musical Composition degree in just 2 years. I have a pretty big trust fund, so I bought a pent house in New York where I resided. After Julliard, I once again changed my name. This time, I made sure my full name was Bartholomew Sebastian Smythe Allen. This way, I was both the nerdy, scientist Barry Allen, and the socialite Sebastian Smythe. I then went to Colombia University for four years, and received my degree in Crime Scene Investigation. After six years spent in New York, I moved to Central. The rest of the story you already know." Barry said.

"Wow. That's amazing! I can't believe you hid all of this for so long!" Felicity exclaimed.

"It certainly wasn't easy. As the sole heir to the Smythe fortune, I'm still forced to attend a multitude of galas and parties. I have to fly to Paris at least five times a year, and this isn't including the amount of times I have to fly to New York, or some other country. Plus, I still help my Aunt run Smythe Designs, and the closest studio is in New York, so I'm there quite often. After a while, it gets hard to come up with excuses to my boss whenever it is I have to leave the city. There are only so many times I can fake food poisoning." He admitted.

"Has anyone ever recognized you?" Felicity asked.

"Thankfully, no. I mean, it happened all the time in New York, which certainly confused my friends who just knew me as 'Barry Allen', but no one here outside of New York ever made the connection between Sebastian Smythe and Barry Allen. Well, other than you of course."

"So I'm special?" Felicity teased.

"You've always been special." Barry confessed with a smile.

"Special enough that you will be willing to do me an incredible favor?" Felicity asked.

"What's the favor?"

"Let's just say I need to borrow some of your famous Sebastian Smythe charm."


End file.
